


reunions

by hydrospanners



Series: little sun [1]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Drabble, Family Feels, Gen, reference to terminal illness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-18 03:15:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14203827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hydrospanners/pseuds/hydrospanners
Summary: It’s always bad news that seems to bring their family together. When the worst happens, Alec Ryder embarks on a mission to bring his wayward children home.





	reunions

Nyria Ryder froze before the door at the end of the hallway, bright red and heavy, inset with a small round window for viewing the room beyond. Not that there was much to see. Sterile white walls, grey tiles, cheap metal chairs bolted to the floor. **  
**

And a man. Tall and square-shouldered, standing at parade rest. Even with his back to the door she knew him.

“Hey, quick question. If I confess now will you put me back in my cell?” The turians flanking her just punched in the security code for the red door of doom. “What about bribes? I can bribe you. Or you could arrest me for trying to bribe you.” She looked desperately to the ceiling, searching hopefully for a camera she well knew wasn’t there. What passed for a prison in this system was really just a glorified drunk tank.

Or it used to be. Ria flattered herself that she might’ve changed a few perspectives this week.

After a few seconds, the security pad began to wail and green lights flashed over the door. It ground its way slowly open, and the security guards shoved Ria through it without ceremony.

“Thank you, Officers,” Alec Ryder spoke as they entered, still facing the large window set into the opposite wall. “I can take it from here.”

The guards turned on their heels–-or whatever passed for a heel on a turian-–and left without a word, the red door grinding shut behind them. Nyria was left alone with her father.

“So,” she said, swallowing thickly. Alec remained where he was, imposing as a statue, crushing her with the force of his silent disapproval. “Are you just gonna stand there like an overdramatic asshole or are you gonna say what you want to say?”

“What could I possibly say Nyria?” Her father sighed, sounding more resigned than angry. Maybe she’d finally broken him. “Your mother and I have said and done everything we possibly could. So long as you’re determined to defy us-–”

“Overdramatic asshole it is,” she muttered. Of course he thought this was about him. He thought  _everything_ was about him.

Alec sighed again, his shoulders drooping as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t want to fight.”

“That’s a first.”

He hesitated, and she could almost hear the argument in his silence, but he said instead, “You need to come home, Ria.”

“Not this again.”

“I’m not asking you to stay. You’ve made your feelings about that clear. But the family needs to be together right now.”

Something turned over in her belly, and the thought occurred to Ria that maybe  _she_ wasn’t the thing that had broken her father. “Is Mom–”

“Everyone’s fine,” he said, in such a rush she knew he was lying. Alec Ryder had many talents, but dishonesty was never one of them. “We just need to talk. Together.”

If it was something with Rhys, she would’ve heard about it before either of their parents. If it was something with Dad, he would never have told anyone about it. So unless she was pregnant and somehow the last person to know about it–-she was definitely  _not_ –-that only left Mom. And they would only be having a family meeting about it if…

“Shit.” Ria sank into one of the chairs, elbows propped on her knees and head resting in her hands. She forgot all about Rana and Sarenna and the mess that landed her here. She even forgot to be angry at her father. The world darkened and narrowed to one small truth. “It’s terminal, isn’t it? Mom’s dying.”

“We’ll talk about it when we’re all together.”

Shit shit  _shit_. “Does Rhys know?”

Alec shook his head, finally turning to face her. He was paler than when she last saw him, paler and older and less somehow. The lines in his face more severe, the grey reaching all the way from his temples to the sides of his head. But it was his eyes that threw her. Blue and bloodshot and bright with tears, but there was no fight in the way he looked at her. No calculation or anger or determination. There was barely anything at all.

Ria rose to her feet, trying to ignore how the planet’s gravity had doubled, how her lunch of prison paste threatened to come back for a visit. She crossed the room in three long strides, throwing her arms around her father’s shoulders. Alec hesitated, just for a moment, before returning the embrace.

“I’ll bring him home,” she said.


End file.
